Although the United States spends nearly $20 billion annually to care for individuals suffering from chronic wounds, chronic wound care is still considered a grand challenge by the National Institutes of Health. Solutions to expedite wound healing would result in substantial savings and enhance the quality of life, particularly for individuals suffering from persistent diabetic ulcers. Just as efficient and effective wound care is desirable in terrestrial applications, improved wound healing is also a concern in astronaut health care.
Innovative approaches such as bioinspiration, i.e., mimicking how the body heals itself, have spawned various wound healing technologies. For example, there are novel materials and techniques based on delivering biological chemicals such as growth factors to a wound site. The results from these approaches have been promising at minimizing scar tissue, but accelerated wound healing has not been demonstrated. Other methods that have been tried include application of light emitting diodes, ultrasound and near infrared laser exposure. However, these techniques have not proven practical for general public use.
Electrical stimulation at the wound site is a new avenue that has been moderately explored since the early 1980s. Electric fields have been demonstrated to play a critical role in controlling the migration of cells to the wound site following injury. Based on this premise, several products designed to expedite the wound healing process through the application of electric fields have been introduced commercially. However, prior art devices for applying electric fields to wound sites rely on AC or DC power to generate the electric fields. As a result, such devices are cumbersome, complex and expensive, thereby limiting their use.